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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Hok-ming and a written reply by the Secretary for Development, Mrs Carrie Lam, in the Legislative Council today (October 21):
Question:
Regarding the handling of incidents of fresh and salt water mains bursts by the Water Supplies Department (WSD), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total volume in cubic metres of fresh water lost due to water mains bursts in the past three years, the value of fresh water lost as calculated by its unit cost as well as the other related economic losses incurred;and
(b) of the number of reports of water mains bursts received by WSD in each of the past three years and the district distribution of such incidents; and
(c) given that in the incident of underground fresh and salt water mains bursts in Eastern Street of Sai Ying Pun this September, the repair service staff of WSD took one hour and five minutes to isolate the burst main from water sources upon receipt of report, of the details of the notification mechanism for handling incidents of water mains bursts by WSD at present, as well as the average time required for the repair service staff to isolate the burst mains from water sources?
Reply:
President,
(a) In the past three years, the annual average volume of fresh water lost due to water mains bursts was estimated to be 178,000 cubic metres. The bursting of water mains was mainly attributable to the ageing of water mains and other external factors. As such, water mains bursts should be regarded as an operational constraint rather than economic loss.
(b) The breakdown of the number of incidents of water mains bursts by region over the past three years (2006-07 to 2008-09) is shown in Annex.
(c) Upon receipt of a report of water mains burst, staff of the Customer Telephone Enquiry Centre of the Water Supplies Department (WSD) will immediately input the information into the computer system and notify the regional office concerned. A regional repair team will then depart for the scene to turn off the valve and conduct emergency repair.
In the past three years from 2006-07 to 2008-09, for the incidents of water mains bursts in the Central and Western District, WSD repair teams from the North Point office managed to turn off the valves and conduct emergency repairs within about 57 minutes on average from receipt of report. However, the actual time they took to turn off the valves in individual cases depended on the location of the site and traffic conditions involved, ranging from the shortest in 10 minutes, to the longest in 3 hours and 30 minutes.
In the incident of the water mains bursts in Eastern Street of Sai Ying Pun this September which occurred at around 8am when the traffic was very busy, the repair team took 1 hour and 5 minutes to reach the scene and turned off the valves 25 minutes later.
Ends/Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:00
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